About Me

I love life, love to laugh and love my family. I strive to find humor in most situations (except when driving behind idiots.) I may not have the cleanest house or the cleanest mouth, but I try hard to enjoy life to the fullest every day.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

So we're halfway through Banned Book Week and I haven't even mentioned it once. Hmmm, I must be slacking on my game (a lot) lately.

As an avid reader, this is a subject that's close to my heart. I remember being appalled the first time I learned that people in towns across America still actually held book burnings. I couldn't believe that people still felt the need to burn a book. But evidently they do and so, an idea was born. Since that time I have periodically (no pun intended) tried to add to the collection of books in my personal library at least a few books that have banned. They don't need to be current books, in fact most of the books I have acquired have been what I would consider classic. Think Dickens, Twain, Caldwell or Steinbeck. At one time I started a list but it got so big that I kind of gave up on it (for now.)

The thing I figured out is that most books that have been banned aren't "bad" books, they are simply books that make some people uncomfortable. The problem is that just because someone is made uncomfortable by something, it doesn't mean that the something is the problem. So, I will continue to peruse the list of banned books in search of new reading material. Or in search of old reading material that I just don't have on my shelf.

I've put the list of 2011's ten most challenged titles below...two things should be noted:

1.) Brave New World should be required reading for every citizen of the US today and
2.) Within the last six months, my child has read #3 (the trilogy) and #10. I'm probably a bad mother, but I'm okay with that.